In the mid-1980s the international development community helped launch in Bangladesh what was to quickly become one of the most popular poverty reduction policies of all time. Microcredit, the system of disbursing tiny micro-loans to the poor to help them to establish their own income-generating activities, was initially highly praised, but in recent years it has been subject to rising scrutiny and criticism. Microcredit, Development and Over-indebtedness shines a light on many of the problems surrounding microcredit and microfinance, in particular the short and long-term impacts...

In the mid-1980s the international development community helped launch in Bangladesh what was to quickly become one of the most popular poverty reduction policies of all time. Microcredit, the system of disbursing tiny micro-loans to the poor to help them to establish their own income-generating activities, was initially highly praised, but in recent years it has been subject to rising scrutiny and criticism. Microcredit, Development and Over-indebtedness shines a light on many of the problems surrounding microcredit and microfinance, in particular the short and long-term impacts...